Beede cleanup on track to begin.

More than 15 years after being named to the nation's Superfund list, the Beede Waste Oil site has taken a big step closer to cleanup now that the last responsible party has agreed to sign the cleanup agreement.

Brodie Ski Mountain Area Inc. was the only party that would not sign a consent decree to pay for its portion of the cleanup. The company, also called J.W. Kelly's Enterprises Inc., withdrew its motion to intervene in Superior Court in early July.

Brodie's concession is the last step needed to begin the estimated $48 million cleanup that is expected to take years to complete.

The court still has to enter the consent decree, but there shouldn't be any more holdups, Jim Brown, the Environmental Protection Agency's Beede project manager, told the Lawrence Eagle-Tribune.

Between 2000 and 2005, 90,000 gallons of oil were vacuumed from the site, where much of it leaked from tanks or was dumped along with other chemicals from 1920 to 1994, the EPA has said. Work has been at a standstill while the court agreement was worked out.

The ski resort, which was in New Ashford, Mass., closed in 2002. Brodie is responsible for 668,812 gallons of oil, according to EPA's volume report.

Brodie's lawyers argued that the company only sent contaminated soil to the site, not liquid oil, and shouldn't be responsible for the calculated $6.9 million in fees, according to paperwork.

The cleanup design is expected to start late next year, with construction beginning in 2010.